IONISPHERE 2 Journal of the National Fantasy Fan Federation Fan-Pro Coordinating Bureau December 2016 Ionisphere 2. Edited by John Thiel, 30 N. 19th Street, Lafayette, Indiana 47904. Email [email protected] The aim of the Fan-Pro Coordinating Bureau is to increase the interrelationship of readers of science fiction and the writers of science fiction, as well as fantasy. To this end we publish interviews with fans and with writers, make available the website URLs of the authors and artists, keep files of authors’ email addresses, keep news of interrelating activities on view, including convention activities, and make the bureau’s facilities open to members of the NFFF. We also encourage letters to Ionisphere concerning the contents and any suggestions that may be offered on our activities and presentation, and will publish such letters in a letter column when we receive them. We are still understaffed, and need volunteers to keep files, look for related news items to present in this publication, and do convention and conference listings. Articles on science fiction doings by members of the NFFF are welcomed, as well as any other material that would seem to be of interest in a scan of the science fiction field at both the professional and the fandom level. We also ask the members who are writers to inform us of any new books or stories they are writing or have had printed, and will list titles of fanzines published by members when we are informed of them, and also print news by fans of their recent activities when they report it to us. Our present staff members are: Introducing the Bureau Members The head of the Bureau is myself, JOHN THIEL. I have handled this activity before, when it was first created by former N3F President Irwin Koch, and ran it for several years, then turned it over to Jim Allen, who had been keeping addresses of writers. My prior fan activity has been OE of Apa-H, Editor of Shadow-Fapa for the Fantasy Amateur Press Association, and at present I have a science fiction fandom group on Facebook as well as a Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction fan group there. I’ve been in Fapa, N’apa and Saps, Frefanzine and the Cult and have attended conventions in Chicago, South Bend (Indiana), Lafayette, Indianapolis, and Columbus Ohio. Fanzines I have published include Pablo Lennis, Caveat Emptor, The International Youngfan, Apa-H, an earlier Ionisphere, Barsoon (Saps), Rocket Fuel (N’apa), the Pdf Dragon for efanzines, and Synergy for the present N’apa. As for any “pro” status, the only sf magazine I have published any stories in is the netzine Bewildering Stories. (Still available in their annals.) Our Pro Contact is JEFFERSON SWYCAFFER, who resides in San Diego, California and has a facebook page. His email address is [email protected] . He is the author of BECOME THE HUNTED (1984), THE PRAESIDIUM OF ARCHIVE (1986), REVOLT AND REBIRTH (1988), NOT IN OUR STARS (1984), THE EMPIRE’S LEGACY (1988), WARSPRITE (1991), THE UNIVERSAL PREY (1985), VOYAGE OF THE PLANET SLAYER (1988), and WEB OF FUTURES (1992). His bio and blog can be found on the net at https://www.amazon.com/Jefferson-P.- Swycaffer/ and at https://jpswycaffer.com , and at Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/JeffersonSwycaff er/ He says of the Fan-Pro Contacts, “Super cool! This sounds like fun, and we’ll make it happen!” Our Fan Contact is JON DAVID SWARTZ, who says of himself: “I have been a fan of popular culture since I was a small child who had to have comic strips and Big Little Books read to me. I still have some of these items, especially those related to science fiction (Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, etc.). As a pre-teen, I read and collected the comic books that featured science fiction (SF) stories. As a teenager, I read and collected the major SF prozines of the time. Also, I was a member of a SF club and worked on a fanzine. Later, at the University of Texas, I belonged to SF clubs and worked on club fanzines. As a graduate student, I was a charter member of the Executive Board of the Academy of Comic Book Fans and Collectors created by Jerry Bails in 1964. With Robert Reinehr, I wrote the HANDBOOK OF OLD-TIME RADIO; A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO GOLDEN AGE RADIO LISTENING AND COLLECTING (1993). Bob and I had another book on old-time radio, HISTORICAL DICTIONARY OF OLD-TIME RADIO, published in 2008. This book was re-issued in 2010 as a paperback with the title of THE A TO Z OF OLD TIME RADIO. I have served as President of the N3F (2010-2011), as Reviews Editor of one of N3F’s fanzines, THE NATIONAL FANTASY FAN (2003-2011), as club Historian (since 2004), as a member of the club’s Directorate (since 2008), and as a Contributing Editor to FanDominion, the club’s website. In addition, I am a member of First Fandom, and have been Special Projects Editor for First Fandom’s fanzine, SCIENTIFICTION: THE FIRST FANDOM REPORT, since 2002. Beginning in 2004, I have been writing articles for the pop culture magazine PAPERBACK PARADE and on Big Little Books for THE BIG LITTLE TIMES. Most of these articles are SF or SF-related. I have also written articles and reviewed SF (and science) books for other print publications, including SCIENCE BOOKS & FILMS, and for various websites on the Internet, including FANCYCLOPEDIA 3. I was twice recipient of the N3F’s President’s Award (Franson Award) in 2005 and 2007, and won the club’s Kaymar Award in 2010; I was also nominated as outstanding fan in the club’s Neffer Awards competition in 2005 and 2010. My history of the N3F was published on the club’s website, and most of it was reprinted in installments in THE FAN. I began contributing a series of Historical Vignettes and Founding Member articles to THE FAN nearly ten years ago, a series that continues to this day. Recently, a tribute I wrote on longtime Colorado fan Bob Peterson was reprinted in Locus Magazine. My book/monograph SF publications include three Fandbooks for the N3F— PSEUDONYMS OF SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY, AND HORROR AUTHORS (2010), THE HUGO AWARDS FOR BEST NOVEL (2013), THE NEBULA AWARDS FOR BEST NOVEL (2016)— and a book for members of The Big Little Book Club, THE BUCK ROGERS BIG LITTLE BOOKS AND OTHER COLLECTIBLES (2013). For First Fandom I co-edited the club’s MEMBERSHIP DIRECTORY in 2015 and 2016, and First Fandom’s president, John Coker, and I wrote the FIRST FANDOM MAGAZINE ANNUAL (2016), and are currently preparing the 2017 ANNUAL. In 2006, I became a member of the Carboniferous Amateur Press Alliance (CAPA) and contributor of my fanzine, THE ULTRAVERSE, to this apa’s monthly 5X5 mailings. When I write on psychological topics, I call my fanzine COGNITIVE DISSONANCE. I am a former member of various other SF and OTR organizations. In mundane life, I received a Ph.D. in 1969 from the University of Texas at Austin and was Chief of Psychological Services at Central Counties Center for Mental Health-Mental Retardation, Temple, Texas, until my retirement in 1999. Previously, I was Associate Dean for Libraries and Learning Resources at Southwestern University, Georgetown, Texas, where I was also Brown Professor of Psychology and Education. I have taught at other colleges and universities, including UNAM in Mexico City. When I was a SF fan in the late 1940s-early 1950s, and just becoming involved in fandom, most of the fans worldwide were SF readers of prozines and books. There were very few radio or TV shows devoted to SF, and SF movies were few—although the ones based on stories by popular SF authors were eagerly anticipated. In the 1960s and 1970s, fandom spread like wildfire, with several SF sub-fandoms emerging; in addition, the term “fandom” started being used by groups that had nothing to do with SF. Today, it seems most SF fans are media-oriented, preferring TV and movie SF to magazine and book SF. If I had to choose, I’d prefer the fanac of old; but I have learned to live and work within the fanac of today as well. Most SF fans still seem to be interested in attending cons and reading and/or contributing to fanzines. Hopefully, IONISPHERE will become one of the more popular zines being published today.” Jon’s email address is [email protected] EDITORIAL Ionisphere is a meeting-place of fans and writers, artists and editors of science fiction and fantasy. It is a nexus of activities of the Fan-Pro Coordinating Bureau, wherein some of the work we do is accomplished and some of it reported. What we give the membership of the NFFF is given here in this publication, where you can find insight into the coordinating activities, and can, if you wish, participate with us. We list addresses where you may correspond with writers and prominent fans, and we give the location of sites where you can read about them or view their blogs. Its purpose is to stir interaction in the science fiction community which is established by various clubs and organizations within the science fiction field. Here you can learn more about the books you read and discuss them with their authors. This helps to orient and define science fiction and makes it possible to explore its milieu. Science fiction and fantasy are worthwhile studies and they are worth grouping about.